


Title To Be Determined

by DoubleSunday



Category: Deltarune (Video Game), Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Chara is a girl, Darkworld Au, Good W. D. Gaster, Other, W. D. Gaster Is Not Related to Papyrus and Sans, frisk is a boy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:49:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29838369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoubleSunday/pseuds/DoubleSunday
Summary: An AU world in which Frisk and Gaster must find a way to free the Darkners and get back Sans.
Relationships: Lancer/Ralsei (Deltarune), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, W. D. Gaster/Sans
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Updates every Wednesday and Sunday

“Ever since we’ve gotten to the surface everything's been great. Toriel and Asgore are starting to get along again. Undyne and Alphys have been doing great, they’re even living together now. Papyrus is learning how to cook from Grillby. Mettaton and Napstablook have been touring together. Muffet even opened her own bakery up here. Everyone seems to be happy, all except one person. Sans acts like he’s happy but he doesn’t do anything, he doesn’t even go outside anymore. But all of that is gonna change, I’m going to figure out what’s wrong with Sans. Once and for all.”

“That’s not your job Frisk,” Chara says from the reflection of Frisk’s phone, “You don’t have to fix everyone”

“It’s not that Chara, I feel like I owe him.” Frisk looks away ashamed, “You and I both know that he remembers everything too…”

Chara stays silent, she’s run out of things to say and they don’t want to argue about what they’ve both done in the past resets. Suddenly Chara disappears as Frisk’s phone lights up, it’s a message from Papyrus.

Papyrus:   
WE HAVE LEFT  
YOU ARE FREE TO ENTER

Frisk pockets his phone and pops his head out of the bushes that he was hiding in and quickly looked around to make sure that no one was around. Once it was clear that no one would catch him, Frisk jumps out the bush and runs over to the door grabbing the key from under the doormat. He got inside as quickly as he could, he left the lights in the house turned off as he approached the stairs. He was suddenly grateful that Sans and Papyrus hadn’t changed the layout of their house too much from the one in the underground. Once he reached Sans’ room he pulled out an old key to the skeleton’s room and hoped that it still worked as he put it in, he let out a sigh of relief as he heard a small click from the lock. Once he entered the room he switched on the light, the scene before him was the same as it was every time he entered the room previously. He felt a small tugging at his soul, which usually meant that Chara wanted to say something, he pulled out his phone and looked down at his reflection.

“So what are you planning?” Chara looked at him with a dissatisfied look on her face, “Just gonna rummage through his stuff and hope he doesn’t find out?”

“I don’t like having to go through his stuff, but I know that he wouldn’t tell me what’s wrong. So maybe something in here will do it for him.” Frisk responded and started to walk around the room, starting with Sans’ dresser.

“Seriously? You actually think this is a good idea?” Chara asked.

Frisk simply put away his phone in response and continued to look through Sans’ dresser while trying to ignore the tugging on his soul from Chara. After a while he came up empty and he began to move on to the next area, Frisk really didn’t feel like messing with the trash tornado and he didn’t feel like digging through old dirty clothes just yet, so he tried Sans’ bed. He searched under Sans’ blanket pile and the nearby pillow but came up empty, he then tried running his hands under the mattress. Just as Frisk started mentally preparing himself for touching Sans’ dirty clothes his hand brushed against something, he reached for it again and pulled out a small journal. He sat down on the bed with the book and began to read, there were many pages that talked about Flowey and them resetting the timeline but he skipped over most of those and went to the latest entries, the ones right after they got to the surface for good. The end of one page in particular caught their interest.

“It’s gonna be five years now in about a month since he’s been gone, and yet I’m still the only one that remembers him. I know that he’d want me to be happy now that we’re up here but I can’t help it, all I want is for him to come back so that he can finally show me the stars. Where did you go Gaster? Are you ever coming back?”

Frisk felt another tug at his soul and pulled at his phone to look at Chara.

“Gaster? Isn’t that who those weird grey guys were talking about?” Chara askes with a shocked look on her face.

Frisk had a look of sudden realization on his face, “Didn’t they say that he fell into his own creation and disappeared without a trace?”

“That would make sense why Sans says that no one remembers him” Chara rubbed her chin and closed her eyes in a thoughtful manner.

“So to make Sans happy all we have to do is get him back?”

Chara opened her eyes and looked at Frisk like he was stupid, “They said he shattered across time and space, how would you even begin to fix that?”

“I can fix anything if I try Chara, besides.” He begins to put the journal away as he pockets his phone, “I think I already have an idea as to who Gaster might be.”


	2. Chapter 1

“Kid, I really don’t get why you would want to come back here.” Sans says as he and Frisk walk through Waterfall.

“There’s a monster that’s still stuck down here and I need your help to bring them to the surface” Frisk said as a half truth, they really wanted to see if the mystery man in Waterfall was really Gaster or not.

As the two of them came up on the next room, Frisk pulled out their menu and accessed their FUN value to set it to 66, Sans watched curiously as Frisk fiddled with the menu. Once the FUN was changed Frisk started leading Sans to the next room, they luckily both walked into the right room as Frisk spotted the grey door. Sans looked at the door with confusion, in all the times that he had been through Waterfall he had never seen that door before. 

“Come on, they’re right over here.” Frisk waves Sans over as he begins to walk towards the door.

Sans follows, still suspicious of the door, he wasn’t sure what kind of monster they were going to meet on the other side of the door. Frisk calmly opens the door and they both walk into a greyish white room with a hunched over black figure in the middle of it, Sans was even more suspicious as Frisk calmly walks towards the figure. Sans walks slowly behind Frisk, as the child stops the figure looks up and Sans is in shock as he recognizes a familiar crack on the mysterious monster’s face.

“Gaster?” Sans starts walking faster and the mysterious monster sits up fully in a panic.

Now that the monster’s face is visible Sans can tell that it’s definitely who he thought it was, but before he could say anything more Gaster began disappearing. Sans picked up his pace as he tried to grab Gaster to stop him from getting away, Frisk grabbed onto the end of his jacket and held on for dear life.

“Sans wait!” He tried but was too late.

All he remembered was blackness, suddenly he felt a small tug on his soul. He groaned and sat up, going to reach for his phone but noticing that nothing was in his pocket, well he didn’t even have pockets anymore. His eyes shot open as he looked around frantically, he was in an unfamiliar bed with different clothes on, he was wearing dark blue under armor and a turquoise scarf. He looked around for anything that could help them see Chara, He spotted a light teal sword in the corner of the room reflecting another part of the room. He quickly got up and ran towards the sword.

“Took you long enough to wake up!” Chara said frustrated.

“Where are we?” Frisk asked.

“No clue, all I know is that after Sans tried to grab that monster we ended up in this strange place all alone.” Chara looked around, “A monster came by and picked you up to bring you here.”

“So we’re on the surface somewhere?” 

“No I don’t think so, I’ve never seen that monster in the underground” Chara looked back at Frisk, “I’m pretty sure we would both remember someone that looked like mom and dad.”

Suddenly he heard the door squeak and he looked to his side where he saw the same monster that Chara was just talking about, they smiled warmly at him. “Oh I see that you’re finally up” They say going to place down a tray that they had in their hand, “How are you feeling?”

“Where am I?” Frisk asks, putting down the sword.

“You’re my home right now.” They fold their hands over one another, “But I’m guessing you mean where are you really, right Lightner?”

“Lightner?” Frisk asked, confused.

“Yes, you’re from the light world, right now,” They gesture around the room, “You’re in the dark world.”

“The dark world? What’s that?”

“Well, long ago Lightners and Darkners lived together.” They sat down on the bed, “One day they stopped living in harmony and Lightners banished us to the dark world, now we wait for a human and a monster so that we can go back.”

Frisk felt a tug at his soul and he looked down at Chara.  
“Don’t you dare! We need to find Sans and get out of here!” Chara looked back at him with an angry face.

“But they need help…” Frisk whispered.

“No! This isn’t your problem!” 

“They need a human and a monster, if we find Sans then we have both.”

“Fine, but then we’re going home right after.”

Frisk didn’t want to bring up that they still hadn’t found Gaster but that could wait until after they freed the Darkners.

“Alright, I’ll help you” He said looking back up at the darkener.

“Oh thank you!” They got up and ran to hug the human.

Frisk just returned the hug and smiled.

“By the way,” They said pulling back, “My name is Ralsei”

“Frisk.”

“I’m going to go let the doctor know that we’re ready to go, I left your armor over there.” Ralsei started walking out. “You can get dressed and meet me outside!”

Once the goat had left he immediately started getting dressed in the golden armor that was left for him, he put the sword in his inventory as a way to freely talk to Chara. Once he was done he did a double check that he had gotten everything that could be useful from the room, he walked out to meet Ralsei who was stood near a doorway. Ralsei turned his head and smiled at the human as he approached. 

“Ready to go?” He asks as Frisk comes up to him.

“Ready.” 

“Are you now?” A mysterious voice asked, “Are you sure that you’re ready for the adventure of your lifetime child?”

Frisk turns around to see a man with a dark grey gi and puffy pants, the man towered over both of them.  
“My apologies, I’ve forgotten to introduce myself.” He bows down and only lifts his head to look at Frisk, “Dr. W. D. Gaster.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The start of a wonderful new adventure


	3. Chapter 2

Gaster was surprised at Frisk’s constant need to spare everyone, but he was grateful that Frisk was a kind human that genuinely wanted to save the Darkners. Frisk gave him hope for the future, hope that monsters and humans could live together in harmony once the barrier was broken. That would have to wait though, they still had to find a way to free the Darkners.

“Doctor?” Ralsei said, interrupting Gaster’s train of thought.

“Yes Ralsei?” Gaster asked looking down at the small goat, “Did you need something from me?”

“I was just worried,” Ralsei said smiling up at the tall monster, “You were spacing out there for a while.”

“I was just…” Gaster looked over to Frisk, “Thinking…”

As much as Gaster did want to think about it, he realized that if Frisk was here that means he more than likely entered from the entrance in the underground. Gaster shuddered at the thought of the child having to give up his soul to break the barrier, it would be for the better of monsterkind but to lose such a kind child would be a shame. Gaster didn’t think that Asgore would be able to do it, the old goat would hopefully spare the child and he could live in the underground or worse, Asgore would give his soul to the child for them to return to the surface.

Meanwhile, Frisk and Ralsei were worried about the older monster. Ralsei had never seen the doctor act like this, usually he was very focused and collected. Right now the doctor was acting as if his mind was somewhere else completely. Frisk didn’t know what to think, he didn’t really know Gaster well enough to get a bead on him, regardless; Frisk wanted to know what was on the man’s mind that caused him to be so distant. Gaster absentmindedly went through all of the puzzles and waved off Frisk giving Ralsei the white ribbon, simply saying, “It looks nice”, and then staring off. Frisk hoped that Gaster would act a bit more lively once they found Sans.

The group walked up to a shop that looked like it was literally sewn into the blackness of the world, a jigsawry stood off to the side not paying attention to them. Frisk saved outside of the shop and turned to his party.

“Let’s go see what they have in the shop, we might find something useful.” Frisk smiled at them, “I could also ask them some questions.”

The group agreed and they entered the shop, inside was a collection of many odd items that seemed to have little to no correlation to each other. The inside of the shop was poorly lit and had that old person’s smell to it, at the counter say a raggedy old cat that had a button in place of one of his eyes. Frisk walked up to the counter but was too short to reach over to talk to the cat, Gaster came up behind Frisk and placed him on his own shoulders to make Frisk taller. Frisk smiled down at Gaster and thanked the monster.

“Hee hee… Welcome, travelers.” The cat says.

“Can you tell me about yourself?” Frisk asked.

“The name’s Seam, pronounced ‘Shawm’ and this is my little Seap.” The cat lets out a small laugh, “Over the years I’ve collected odds and ends, ‘course I’ve no attachment to any of it. It’s just a hobby of mine.”

“Why collect junk?” Gaster asked.

“Around here, you learn to find ways to pass the time.” Seam smiles softly, “Or go mad like everyone else.”

“Can you tell us about the kingdom?” Frisk asked.

“Don’t have anything better to do, so I suppose.” Seam leans back in his chair, “Are you ready?”

Frisk nodded.

“Historically, this land was ruled by the four kings, from the Card Castle to the east. A few years ago three of the kings were locked away, the remaining king put him and his family in charge. Then the Queen of Spades was gone.” Seam looked sorrowful, “This land hasn’t seen this much Chaos since… Ha, well you don’t need to know about that.”

Frisk was confused about that last part but let it go and continued to ask, “What can you tell us about lighteners?”

“Long ago, the Darkners lived together in harmony with the Lightners.” Seam smiled again, “They were like gods to us. Our protectors. Our creators. Those who gave us purpose.” Seam looked sad again, “Then one day we were locked away in this prison… and the Lightners never returned.”

“What happened then?” Gaster asked.

“Embittered, the king took up arms, and aims to take revenge upon the Lightners that left us behind.” a simile came to Seam’s face as he continued to speak, “‘Course, even among his troops, some still hope that the Lightners will return.”

“We have! We’re the Lightners that are here to set you all free!” Frisk proclaimed loudly.

“So you’re the heroes that are going to seal our fountain?” Seam laughed, “Good luck, it makes no difference to me. Neither light nor dark hold a future for a Darkner in my condition.”

“Ok, one last question,” Frisk readied, “Have you seen my friend Sans? He’s a short skeleton that likes to make puns?” 

Seam let out a belly laugh, “Sans? I haven’t heard that name in years! If you’re looking for him then he’s bound to be at the Card Castle.”

Feeling satisfied, the group bought some darkburgers and left the shop to go find a place to camp for the night, at Ralsei’s suggestion, in the field somewhere. Just as they were about to leave the next room they saw a small monster wearing a blue hood blocking their way. The small monster turned to look at them and they could see that half his face was covered by a spade.

“Well flip my flapjacks! The clowns are in town!” The monster said.

“Um, who are you?” Frisk asked.

“I’m,” The monster spun around quickly, “the bad guy!”

“The bad gu-” Ralsei started.

“Unlucky for you,” The monster grinned, “I’ve already created a team ready to fight you!”

“Can’t we talk this out?” Frisk asked hopeful.

“Hmmmmmmm, nope!” The monster said, sticking his tongue out.

Suddenly a group of three jigsawrys came out of nowhere and got ready to fight.

“Now get ready.” The monster grinned wildly, “You’re going to be thrashed!”

The three of them entered a fight with the jigsawrys. Frisk made quick work of befriending them, Frisk’s expert dodges made it so that none of the team took any damage during the fight. After the fight they realized that the small monster had disappeared sometime during the fight, they decided to worry about the monster later as they had a feeling that this wasn’t going to be the last time that they saw him. They made quick work of the puzzle that opened a gate that was blocking their path, they then decided to make camp before they decided to go to the room that looked like a checkerboard. The group made a fire and settled down for the night. Gaster stared into the fire, seemingly lost in thought again.

“So Gaster.” Frisk started, immediately pulling the doctor out of his trance.

“Hm? Yes child?” Gaster looked over to him.

“How do you know Sans?” 

“He was my lab assistant.” Gaster looked away, “And one of my closest friends.”

“How do you know him?” Gaster asked.

“We met just outside of the ruins, he and I became pretty fast friends.”

“I see.”

“They said that you ‘fell into your own creation’” Frisk started, “Do you remember what happened?”

“I’m afraid I do…” 

“Could you tell me about it?”

“That’s a long story, child.”

“We have time.”

“I want to know how you got here too.” Ralsei spoke up.

Both children looked at Gaster expectantly, Gaster let out a sigh.

“Fine, but just this once.”


	4. Chapter 3

“I’m heading home for the day doc.” Sans said, taking off his lab coat, “Papyrus is gonna be calling any moment now for his story.”

“Alright Sans, I’m going to stay here for a bit longer.” Gaster said absentmindedly as he shuffled through the papers in front of him.

“Don’t stay too long.” Sans said knowing that Gaster wasn’t really listening.

“Uh huh.” Gaster was writing now.

Sans sighed and walked over to the taller monster, placing a hand down on the papers Gaster finally looked up at the small skeleton. He looked exhausted, it made Sans worry.

“I mean it G.” He said sternly, “You can’t overwork yourself so much.”

Gaster’s eyes softened and he broke eye contact with Sans, “I know, but I’m so close to a breakthrough.” He looked back to Sans, “I may even be able to figure this out by tonight.”

Sans closed his eyes and thought for a moment, he wanted this too. Gaster knew that more than anything in the world he wanted for this experiment to be a success, everything that they had tried in the past had failed and both were getting desperate at this point. They had both spent many sleepless nights trying to make this experiment a success, and all they had to show for it was a doorway to nothing.

“Fine, but I'm serious Gaster.” Sans said lifting his hand off the paper and walking to grab his keys, “Don’t stay here all night”

“I’ll see you tomorrow Sans.” 

“See you tomorrow doc.”

And with that Sans left. Gaster let out a breath that he had been holding in and rubbed the back of his neck, he was so close now. He cleared his head and began to work on the issue at hand, creating a dimensional door. That’s how they would get out of the underground, they would simply go to another dimension where they could be free. No more killing and no having to deal with the humans that imprisoned them. Gaster and Sans had to be the ones to save them from another war. The motivation caused Gaster to work even quicker than before, soon he was applying what he had found to the door, and in a matter of a few hours he was finally done. 

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath and breathed out, “Please work.” 

He slowly opened the door to see that it led to pitch blackness, it had finally worked. His experiment finally worked! Gaster started to laugh in success and turned to look over to Sans, only realizing that Sans had already gone home for the night. No matter, he would simply tell him through text so that Sans would see it when he woke up. Gaster grabbed his phone and began typing out a message:

Gaster:  
Sans! I’ve finally done it!  
The door works!

Gaster stared down at his phone smiling, he was so excited for Sans to see the door. After all, this whole thing was Sans’ idea. Sans had been such a help during the whole experiment too. All they needed to do now was to test it, but they had no volunteers… Unless…

Gaster looked over to the door to blackness, Sans wouldn’t mind if he tested it first right? Gaster placed down his things and walked towards the door, he let in another deep breath and stepped forward into the darkness.

-

“When I stepped in the door closed behind me and the floor disappeared, I fell and landed here in the dark world.” Gaster let out a sigh, “Not too soon after I fell is when Ralsei found me.”

“So you managed to create a door to the dark world, why not just try to make one to the light world?” Frisk asked, tilting his head.

“I have tried, all of my attempts have yielded no results.” Gaster closed his eyes.

“So that’s what you’ve been doing with that door...” Ralsei piped up.

“I think that it’s time that we sleep, children.” Gaster said laying down, not wanting to speak anymore. 

Ralsei laid down without any fuss, Frisk felt a tug at his soul so he put his sword down near himself so that he could see Chara.

“So he didn’t fall into the core after all?” She said, “And how did they even come up with an idea for a dimensional door in the first place?”

“We can talk in the morning.” Frisked whispered, “Goodnight Chara.”

“Fine.” Chara huffed and then her eyes softened, “Goodnight Frisk.”


	5. Chapter 4

The group made quick work of gathering all they needed the next morning and leaving the makeshift campsite, they then made their way towards the room with the checkerboard floor. They had a bit of trouble with the puzzle in the room due to Ralsei and Frisk’s shorter legs, this led to Gaster eventually feeling bad for the two, also he was tired of dealing with ponmen, and deciding to carry them. They met up with Lancer and helped him get past K. Round, they even had a new name for their party thanks to Lancer’s idea. They were now called the FUN Gang, Frisk didn’t let anyone know how ironic that was given how he got to the dark world. Finally they had arrived at the Scarlet Forest, they were getting close to the castle now.

“This place is so pretty!” Ralsei said, admiring the scenery.

“You won’t have time to enjoy how pretty it is while I’m here!” A voice said.

“Lancer…!” Ralsei cried out upon seeing the prince.

“Well if it isn’t the so called heroes!” Lancer grinned, ‘Are you finally ready to see what happens when you act soft against someone that thrashes anyone in his way?”

“Um, so what’s your evil plan?” Frisk asked, tilting his head in confusion.

“Uhh.” Lancer began to sweat, “I didn’t think I’d get this far…”

“Oh.” Ralsei said simply.

“I didn’t really think past my intro yet.” Lancer frowned, “Have a little patience please.”

“Oh, um, sorry.” Ralsei apologized, “We’re um, looking forward to the rest!”

“Well you won’t have to wait for long.” Lancer grinned again, “Starting now I’m gonna work ceaselessly to make an evil plan to thrash you clowns!”

Lancer began to run off, “So watch your backs! And your fronts!”

And with that he was gone. The group continued to walk down the path, fighting a Rabbick here and there but not really having too much trouble. They saw lancer standing by a stump and decided to check in on him.

“How’s the evil scheming going?” Ralsei smiled at the prince.

“I got bored so I’m having a snack!” Lancer smiled.

“Oh I see…” Ralsei said.

“I didn't eat anything today.” Lancer smiling with his tongue out.

“Oh I’m sorry… What are you eating exactly?” Ralsei frowned.

“Just a daily treasure that I hid in this tree’s orifice.” He pointed at the crack in the log.

“And that is?” Ralsei looked confused now.

“Feast for yourself my main man.” Lancer offered to the group.

Frisk instantly decided not to due to the last time he ate something strange like that it ended up being Papyrus’ spaghetti, Gaster also denied leaving just Ralsei. The young prince didn’t want to be rude so he looked into the stump.

“Oh there's, um, a… Honeypot inside?” Ralsei was fully confused now but looked closer, “... It’s full of salsa.”

“Bingo, you sweet little pumpkin!” Lancer grinned, “It’s my secret stash, a little snackaroo from me to you.”

Ralsei tried some of the salsa and stayed silent.

“Ralsei, are you ok?” Gaster asked, leaning down to the goat child.

“Mmm, yummy!” Ralsei licked his lips in satisfaction, “It’s delicious.”

“You’re just pretending to eat it.” Frisk pointed out.

Lancer let out a laugh, “That’s what I do too!”

Gaster looked at the small darkner with concern, especially given that he had just said that he hadn’t eaten yet today. The group decided to continue on, leaving Lancer to his salsa. They solved a few puzzles and kept walking when they were stopped by a three-headed darkner.

“You didn’t even say hi to us on our birthday!”

The fight started and Frisk evaluated his options, it was a hard choice but he went with his gut feeling.

“Ralsei!” Frisk said and pointed towards Clover, “Talk boys!”

“W-what?” Ralsei stuttered out.

“Talk boys!” 

“But, what do I say?”

“Just think of something, talk about cute boys or something.”

“Um…”

“Ralsei, just do something.” Gaster said looking at the goat.

“S-so, Prince Lancer is pretty c-cute.” Ralsei squeaked out, blushing. 

“Oh wow I love talking about boys!”  
”Yeah boys are my favorite!”  
“I dunno, he’s not really my type.”

The rest of the fight went without too many problems, Gaster slightly bored Clover by talking about science at one point but besides that they had an easy time with the fight without Ralsei’s help. Clover ended up leaving them and they were free to move on, but first Frisk looked over to Ralsei with a smirk on his face.

“Soooo, Lancer huh?” Frisk leaned closer as Ralsei covered his face with his hat.

Gaster picked up the small human to get him away from Ralsei. “Don’t be mean child.” He looked down at Ralsei with soft eyes, “It’s fine Ralsei, we won’t judge you for who you like.”

The group continued on and soon came across a bake sale, and at the end of the line of sellers they saw Lancer with his own stand. Ralsei blushed and walked behind the lightners as they walked over to Lancer.

“Greetings, gentleclowns.” Lancer grinned, “May I interest you in a Lancer Cookie? It’s a mere 40G.”

“Sure!” Frisk said, handing over the money.

“Thanks.” Lancer giggled, handing over the cookie, “For getting cheated by me!”

Lancer stood up on the chair he had at the stand, “Now I can fund my illicit plans!”

Lancer jumped off the chair and ran over to one of the other stands to buy some food, the group looked at him with a confused look across their faces. They walked over to him.

“You know.” Ralsei started, “You could have just asked us to buy you something.”

“I could’ve?”

“Of course, we would have been happy to share.”

“Hmm.” Lancer thought, “Well do you wanna share with me?”

“Huh?” Ralsei began to blush again.

“Yeah we can all share!” Lancer smiled 

“That’s ok Lancer.” Gaster started, “You and Ralsei can share that one, we can get another one.”

Before Ralsei or Lancer could say anything Gaster and Frisk walked off to go get a Choco diamond.

“So… How do you want to split this?” Ralsei said, sitting down with Lancer.

“I’ll take the blood and you can have the skin!”

“You… you mean the jelly?”

“Huh?”

“You want the jelly.”

“Is that what it’s called?”

“Yes and the ‘skin’ is called dough.”

“Wow! I’m learning so much today already!”

The two ate together happily as Gaster and Frisk watched them from a bit farther away, this day was shaping up to be a good one already.


	6. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a long chapter

“Oh woe is me, if only a hero would help me…” 

“Lancer…? Is everything alright?” Ralsei asked.

“Oh I’m not Lancer, I’m just a sweet little boy.” Lancer turned to reveal that he had a fake mustache on.

“Why does a sweet little boy have a mustache?” Gaster asked confused. 

“As a disguise.” Lancer grinned then laughed.

“So what kind of help do you need?” Ralsei asked.

“See I have this evil plan that I have to make…” 

“And why does a ‘sweet boy’ need an evil plan?” Gaster rolled his eyes.

“To impress his cool friends!” Lancer smiled.

Realizing that Lancer was talking about them they smiled and Frisk turned to the rest of the group, “Guys let’s help him out.” 

“We’ll gladly help, what shall we do?” Ralsei asked.

“It’s all on paper, you delicious little apple!” Lancer said, pulling out blueprints to a machine, “Just fill it out with the most evil things you can think of.” 

Frisk looked at the paper and started rearranging things to create a machine that looked cool to him, he was slightly confused about the addition of the things to make a duck but he continued to create his ass thrashing machine. 

“Wow! Looks pretty nasty!” Lancer smiled, “Are you sure you aren’t evil?”

That was a whole bag of worms that Frisk really didn’t want to get into.

“Uh no, I guess Frisk just has a knack for it!” Ralsei smiled.

Lancer gathered up the blueprints and started to run off, “Thank you very much! Thrash you later!”

The group walked up a little farther, past another puzzle and a bird trying to kill them, and saw Lancer sitting lounging on a chair while he was being fanned by a Ruddin.

“How’s the thrashing machine that we designed going?” Frisk asked, smiling.

“The what machine?” Lancer said with his tongue out.

“The machine from a few minutes ago in the chapter?” Frisk asked.

“Oh that.” He said, “I’m gonna make it last minute.”

“You should really start working on it earlier.” Gaster stated.

“What’s with the lecture?” Lancer puffed out, “I didn’t come here for another dad.”

“Ok well, we’ll leave you to it.” Frisk said, pushing away a slightly angry Gaster.

“By the way, beware the forest maze.” Lancer shouted over to them, “Without someone that knows the way you’ll get hopelessly lost, and I know the forest like the back of my head!”

They continued to walk after sparing him one last glance, they saw him up ahead somehow and Frisk decided to follow him. They followed him to the right two times and saw that he ended up at a dead end.

“So which way are we going next?” He smiled innocently at them.

“We… were following you.” Ralsei smiled back.

“Oh… Why?” Lancer frowned, “I have no idea where I’m going.”

“But I thought you said you knew this place?” Frisk asked.

“I said I know it like the back of my head.” Lancer pouted, “I don’t know what the back of my head looks like.”

“Hm, I have an idea.” Gaster picks up Lancer and puts him on his shoulders, “Let’s head back the way we came.”

They went back to the start of the maze and went to the left path instead of the right one and saw that there were two more paths.

“Alright Lancer, which way?” Gaster looked up at the small monster.

“Um, that way!” Lancer pointed at the left path.

“Let’s go this way.” Gaster said going to the right.

They came to another forked path.

“Now which way?” Gaster asked.

“Hmmm, that way!” Lancer giggled pointing to the left again.

Gaster began walking past the large trap in the middle and walked to the right side, they finally came to a straight away path. 

“It seems as if my hypothesis was correct.” Gaster smiled, pushing his glasses up only to have them fall right back into place.

“Oh, I get it!” Ralsei said perking up, “We just go the opposite way of where Lancer would go because he always chose wrong!”

“Oooooohh.” Lancer said, “You’re pretty smart tall person!”

“Thank you.'' Gaster said, smiling at himself proudly.

They kept walking forward but came to a stop at three branching paths.

“So what do we do now tall person?” Lancer asked, smiling down at Gaster.

Gaster looked around at the children who were all staring at him expectantly.

“Well,” Gaster began to sweat, “I may have an idea, Lancer, which way would you go?”

“That way!” He pointed to the left.

“And if that didn’t work?”

“That way!” He pointed to the right.

“Then middle it is.”

They all walked down the middle path and came to another branching path.

“Now which way?” Gaster asked.

“That way and that way.” Lancer pointed to the middle and left path.

Gaster began to walk down the right side, they avoided more birds and ended up going to the left where they found a room with more traps in it.

“I guess this is a good sign right doctor?” Ralsei asked looking up at Gaster with a smile.

“Yes, I would say so.” Gaster smiled down at the goat.

They went through one last path and finally came to a save point and Lancer jumped off Gaster’s shoulders, slightly throwing him off. He began to run off. The group was confused for a moment but continued on, soon they came up on a large threatening figure that looked familiar. 

“Frisk! Look, it’s your machine that you designed!” Ralsei said confused, “Alright, this is gonna be tough but we can do this.”

They then got a better look at the machine, it was very poorly made, obviously it was made at the last minute.

“Oh, that’s not good at all.” Gaster said cringing at the machine.

Lancer came up behind the machine, “Oh ho ho, if you think that’s bad just wait!” He grins, “And see what happens when it starts up!”

The machine blew up suddenly, scaring Ralsei and causing Lancer to laugh. 

“Oh I see,” Gaster started, “So what’s your plan now?”

“I don’t need a plan, just a rule.” He started, “Anyone who gets in the way, gets crushed into dust!”

A battle started.

“Gaster defend, Ralsei do something.” Frisk commanded.

Gaster put up his wrists in front of his face to block whatever damage he could and Ralsei thought for a moment.

“You’ve done so much today, I’m so proud of you!” Ralsei smiled.

*Lancer began to become a little convinced

“Oh, it’s working on me!” Lancer said before launching into an attack, he shot out spades as he rode on his bike around the group. Frisk managed to dodge all of them.

“Do that again Ralsei!” Frisk called and Gaster took up a blocking position again.

“If we don’t stop fighting then, “Ralsei looked sadly at Lancer, “Someone might get hurt.”

*Lancer became more convinced! It’s working!

“Really? That’s bad!” Lancer tried to drive into Frisk but missed him.

“One more time guys!” Frisk smiled.

“If we stopped fighting then I could, um…” Ralsei struggled to think of something, “I could braid your hair!”

*Lancer became almost fully convinced!

“Wow, I’d look amazing!” Lancer said repeating his first attack, still missing.

“Ralsei, deal the final blow!” Frisk said.

“Um, in summary, I- we really like you and…” Ralsei started, “I think we should all just get along!”

“Uh oh.” Lancer said, “I like you guys too! Now just seeing you guys makes me feel all round and soft!”

“Then that means battle’s over?” Frisk asked hopefully.

“Yeah you guys win.” Lancer said sadly, “Does this mean I don’t get to hang out with you guys anymore?”

“Huh?” Frisk looked at him confused, “Of course you can hang out with us still!”

“I can?” Lancer perked up, “But I don’t wanna hurt you guys anymore.”

“You can just travel with us,” Gaster smiled, “We would love to have you become a part of our team.”

“Wow! Me?” Lancer smiled with his tongue out, “A part of the Fun Gang? I’d love to!”

*Lancer joined the party

“Can I ride on your shoulders again tall person?” Lancer looks up at Gaster softly smiling, Gaster leans down to pick up the small child.

“Of course you can.” Gaster placed him back on his shoulders.

The group started walking forward again on the path.

“Wow! This is so cool!” Lancer said, “I’ve never been on such a big team before!”

“Don’t you have a legion of various guys?” Ralsei asked.

“Yeah but my dad forced them to listen to me.” Lancer said, “So they don’t like me very much.”

“Well you don’t need them anymore.” Frisk smiled at him.

“Man, I’m still kinda hungry…” Lancer said sadly.

“Well, I was thinking of baking a cake later!” Ralsei said happily. 

“Oh! Look tall person!” Lancer pointed to the top of a tree, “Some dark candy!”

“I’ll take you over to get it on one condition.” Gaster started, “You have to start calling me Gaster.”

“Ok! Can we go get that candy tall- I mean Mr. Gaster?” Lancer asked.

Gaster let out a small chuckle and walked over to the tree to grab the dark candy, Lancer reached over and grabbed the candy only pulling back when he had made sure he had a good grip on it. He put the candy to his mouth to start eating when he suddenly closed his mouth and jumped off Gaster’s shoulders.

“Is something wrong Lancer?” Gaster asked, concerned.

He broke it in half and offered it to Ralsei, “Is this a good trade?”

“A trade for what?” Ralsei looked at him confused.

“You said you’re gonna bake a cake?” Lancer said, “Can I have some if I give you some of my dark candy?”

“You don’t need to trade!” Ralsei smiled, “You can always have some!”

“Really?” Lancer smiled.

“Of course!” Ralsei exclaimed, “But if you want me to have some…?”

Lancer shoved half of the candy into Ralsei’s hands and walked next to him as they ate their candy together.

“Walking alongside you guys… feels nice.” Lancer said, finishing his candy, “Like I’m doing something important.”

“That’s because you’re alongside lightners, Lancer.” Raslei said finishing his candy too, “Our purpose, darkners purpose, is to assist them. It’s the only way we feel truly fulfilled.”

“Really…?” Lancer looked at Ralsei confused, “But my dad hates lightners, he wants to…” 

“Does your dad seem happy?” Ralsei asked.

“I’m… not sure.”

“Can we stop this whole ‘purpose’ talk?” Frisk said sensing the tension in the group.

They continued to walk in silence. Soon the Card Castle came into view.

“Look everyone!” Ralsei turned to look over to the castle in the distance. 

“Yes! That’s where I live!” Lancer grinned, “Me and um, my dads...”

“What’s that black thing coming out of the top?” Frisk asked.

“That’s the dark fountain, child.” Gaster said looking at the fountain, “That is how we’ll get home and how we will free the darkners.” 

They continued to walk in silence when suddenly Lancer broke it.

“Are you sure there isn’t another way?” Lancer asked, looking down, “The fountain is being guarded right now, if you try to go there you, um, might get hurt…”

“Come now child, I’m sure we won’t be stopped by what lies ahead of us.” Gaster smiled putting a hand on lancer’s shoulder.

“B-but what if you had to fight…” Lancer started.

“It’s fine Lancer, we know what we’re doing!” Frisk said confidently.

“B-but.”

“What?” Frisk asked.

“I think…” Lancer started walking faster, “I think I need to go.”

Lancer took off quickly and the group attempted to follow after him but were suddenly ambushed by Ranger Ruddins, Frisk took some heavy damage but he managed to catch up with the rest of the group.

“Lancer!” Ralsei called out. The group tried to follow him as he walked into the entrance to the Card Castle but were blocked by the gates, before they could say or do anything they were surrounded by Ranger Ruddins. They were surrounded by diamonds and then suddenly blackness. 

“Hehe, you poor lightners.” A voice said, “We were told to keep you imprisoned for eternity.” 

Frisk slowly got up and saw that he was in a cell with Ralsei, who got up and looked over at him. 

“O.. Ow.” Ralsei let out, “Well this is a fine how-do-you-do isn’t it Frisk?”

“Imprisoned for eternity?” Frisk asked, “That might take a while, and I promised my mom I’d be back for dinner.”

Ralsei suddenly got up, “Where’s Dr. Gaster!?”

“Let’s focus on getting out of here first.” Frisk said, “Maybe there’s something in here that can help us.”

Frisk began to look around the room and found a broken shackle, a crack in the wall that was too small for them, and some moss. He put on the shackles for extra defense and walked over to the moss.

*Life cannot exist without consuming, even the moss must drink water. Perpetuate the cycle of existence?

Perpetuate Do not

Frisk picked up some of the moss and started to shovel it into his mouth.

“Frisk what are you doing?” Ralsei asked, looking over at Frisk, the human looked back at the monster with moss covering his mouth.

-

Gaster looked around at the other cells as he stalked through the castle basement. He hadn’t found Ralsei and Frisk yet but at least he was able to get himself out by using his hands. Suddenly he heard Lancer’s voice and began to walk towards it.  
“Understand? They have to stay in their cells.” Lancer said to a Ruddin Ranger, “The lightners can’t be allowed to escape.”

“Lancer!?” Gaster exclaimed.

“M-Mr. Gaster!?” Lancer turned around shocked, “W-what are you doing here?”

“Lancer, Frisk and Ralsei are still locked up somewhere.”

“I know… I told my troops to put you there.” Lancer said sadly, “To keep you down here. Forever.”

“You, you wanted to get rid of us?” 

“N-no, I just.” Lancer looked away, “Just please go back to your cell or I’ll have to make you.”

“No.” Gaster said standing his ground.

“Fine, but don’t blame me if you get hurt.”

A battle started. Lancer sent out a barrage of spades from one direction but Gaster managed to barely dodge them, he was suddenly really missing Frisk’s amazing dodging skills.

“Lancer we don’t have to do this!” 

Lancer sent out spades from both directions and a few of them hit Gaster, he recoiled in pain and let out a hiss.

“Lancer please!”

Lancer sent out another barrage of spades which hit Gaster, he let out a yelp of pain. For a child Lancer hit hard.

Lancer sent out another barrage and Gaster closed his eyes to brace himself for another hit, but it never came. Gaster opened his eyes to see that Lancer had purposefully missed his attacks.

“Lancer?”  
“I- I don’t want to hurt you.” Tears fell from Lancer’s eyes. 

“We don’t have to fight Lancer.” Gaster walked closer to the smaller monster.

“But, I can’t let you go.” Lancer looked up at him.

“We can go get Ralsei and Frisk, together.” 

“But, if I let you guys go… You’ll have to fight dad.”

“We aren’t going to hurt him, that’s a promise.”

“But he’s gonna hurt you guys real bad…”

Gaster closed his eyes and thought for a moment and kneeled down to Lancer’s level.

“I promise we’ll make it out, and when we get to the light world you can come visit me and Ralsei everyday.” 

“Really?”

“I promise, now let’s go find Ralsei and Frisk.”

-

“Frisk no!” Ralsei cried out while trying to hold back Frisk’s hand, which was full with moss.

“I must perpetuate the cycle Ralsei!” Frisk cried out.

Suddenly the two hear the sound of the cell door opening, they both look to the side and see Gaster and Lancer watching them in confusion. They quickly separated and walked over to the pair.

“Lancer! Doctor!” Ralsei said, hugging Gaster’s mid.

“Let’s get out of here.” Frisk said, “We still need to find Sans.”

“Sans?” Lancer asked, confused.

“Yeah, he’s our friend who came to the dark world with us.” Frisk said, “Do you know where he is Lancer? Seam said that he would be at the Card Castle.”

“Yeah I know him!” Lancer grinned.

“Let’s go save him then!”

“Yeah let’s go save nice dad!”


End file.
